Data Abuse in New Jersey
We've now had over a year of ACTING Commissioner Chris Cerf's reign at the NJ DOE. Looking back, one overarching theme emerges:
Data abuse.
Cerf likes to present himself as a wonk, despite the fact that he is a lawyer by training and holds no advanced degrees in education. He love charts, graphs, figures, and "factesque" data. The problem is that he seems to believe the role of research is to support his ideology, rather than guide him to the truth.
Unfortunately for him, highly qualified education researchers have been watching the NJDOE. And their examinations of Cerf's presentations are quite damning.
Let's begin with Cerf's latest focus: poverty and student achievement. Bruce Baker of Rutgers takes down a particularly brazen bit of Cerf's mendacity:
Data abuse.
Cerf likes to present himself as a wonk, despite the fact that he is a lawyer by training and holds no advanced degrees in education. He love charts, graphs, figures, and "factesque" data. The problem is that he seems to believe the role of research is to support his ideology, rather than guide him to the truth.
Unfortunately for him, highly qualified education researchers have been watching the NJDOE. And their examinations of Cerf's presentations are quite damning.
Let's begin with Cerf's latest focus: poverty and student achievement. Bruce Baker of Rutgers takes down a particularly brazen bit of Cerf's mendacity:
I just couldn’t pass this one up. This is a graph for the ages, and it comes from a presentation by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education given at the NJASA Commissioner’s Convocation in Jackson, NJ on Feb 29. State of NJ Schools presentation 2-29-2012Please turn to Slide #24:
A Bad Cup of Joe
I have neither the time nor the stomach to take on all the mendacity and stupidity that spewed forth from MSNBC's Morning Joe during their education "town hall" on Friday. But I will point out a few low lights. Let's start with this:
There were two New Jersey superintendents on the show: Interim Superintendent Steven Engravalle of Fort Lee, and Cami Anderson of Newark. Engravalle was appointed just this last November: he's been on the job four months, but the show ran a piece about how he's changed the "culture" of the schools, and test scores are up. Yes, that's right: four months, when there hasn't been even one administration of the NJASK. That's even faster than Michele Rhee claimed success.
Engravalle replaced outgoing super Raymond Bandlow, who left for a gig in New York, which doesn't have a cap on superintendent pay - a cap that was put in place by Chris Christie and has led to a brain-drain in school leadership across the state. Christie loves the new guy though, because he toes the company line; in this clip, he bad mouths the union:
There were two New Jersey superintendents on the show: Interim Superintendent Steven Engravalle of Fort Lee, and Cami Anderson of Newark. Engravalle was appointed just this last November: he's been on the job four months, but the show ran a piece about how he's changed the "culture" of the schools, and test scores are up. Yes, that's right: four months, when there hasn't been even one administration of the NJASK. That's even faster than Michele Rhee claimed success.
Engravalle replaced outgoing super Raymond Bandlow, who left for a gig in New York, which doesn't have a cap on superintendent pay - a cap that was put in place by Chris Christie and has led to a brain-drain in school leadership across the state. Christie loves the new guy though, because he toes the company line; in this clip, he bad mouths the union:
So, the NJEA should return some dues money to teachers, because first year teachers don't make enough. Of
Bad Cup of Joe, Part II
This is, in a word, unbelievable:
I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. 15 straight minutes of bashing on teachers unions, and no one - NO ONE - from the union itself is there to respond. No one from the NEA; no one from the NJEA; no one from the local union in Fort Lee; not even a MEMBER of the NJEA - a teacher! - appeared in this segment, or afterward (the teacher who showed up later is in Newark, and therefore not represented by NJEA, but by AFT).
I'd like you to imagine, for a moment, a segment on this show where some politician decides to lay into the AMA. Does anyone believe the doctors wouldn't get a chance to respond? Wouldn't there be an uproar if they were denied a chance to talk?
My question stands: did Chris Christie make it a condition of his appearance on Morning Joe that no member of
I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. 15 straight minutes of bashing on teachers unions, and no one - NO ONE - from the union itself is there to respond. No one from the NEA; no one from the NJEA; no one from the local union in Fort Lee; not even a MEMBER of the NJEA - a teacher! - appeared in this segment, or afterward (the teacher who showed up later is in Newark, and therefore not represented by NJEA, but by AFT).
I'd like you to imagine, for a moment, a segment on this show where some politician decides to lay into the AMA. Does anyone believe the doctors wouldn't get a chance to respond? Wouldn't there be an uproar if they were denied a chance to talk?
My question stands: did Chris Christie make it a condition of his appearance on Morning Joe that no member of